1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and, in particular, to a tape printer for printing characters on a printing tape, which is formed into a label to be adhered or attached to an object or an article (the article is hereinafter referred to as an article for adhesion), in which the printing is made based on characters inputted to the tape printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional tape printer, a print size of characters (such as letters) to be printed is set as a relative value in accordance with detection of a tape width of a loaded printing tape.
In the existing printing tape used in tape printers, a printing tape with extremely narrow width for a label to be adhered to a back of a minidisk (MD) or a flexible disk does not exist. This is because even if a small label is created from the printing tape with a narrow width so as to be adhered to the specific article for adhesion, the handling thereof is difficult. That is, the extremely small label is difficult of handling in terms of holding the label, removing a backing paper (or a release paper) from the label, and attaching the label to the article for adhesion. Furthermore, a problem also arises in that the extremely small label after being adhered to the article for adhesion is likely to peel off easily. Moreover, the printing tape with a narrow width also has a problem in the ease of running or traveling of the tape at the time of printing. Therefore, there will arise a problem in that the smaller becomes the width of the tape, the more crooked becomes the printed path.
Therefore, there is considered an arrangement in which a printing tape with a larger width is folded to suit the article for adhesion and is adhered thereto. In this case, since the print size is set as a relative value of the tape width of the loaded printing tape in the conventional tape printer, the setting of the print size must be made while taking the tape width into account after a mode is switched from a print size setting mode to a manual input mode and, further, after the size of the article for adhesion is measured. Thus, a user is forced to conduct a complicated operation.
The present invention has been made in view of the fact that articles for adhesion requiring extremely narrow labels are virtually limited to several particular types, and has an advantage of providing a printing apparatus and, in particular, a tape printer which can set an appropriate print size for a particular article for adhesion easily without being influenced by a width of a loaded printing tape.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus for printing characters on a printing tape. The printing apparatus comprises: a display for displaying characters inputted into the printing apparatus; a printer for printing the inputted characters on the printing tape; a setting device for setting a print size of the characters according to a width of a loaded printing tape; and a selection setting device for selectively setting the print size of the characters from among a plurality of print sizes determined in stages, wherein the selection setting device comprises a fixed-size setting device for setting a specific print size depending on a use of the printing tape.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tape printer for printing characters on a printing tape for use as a label to be adhered to an article for adhesion. The tape printer comprises: display means for displaying on a screen characters inputted into the tape printer; print means for printing the inputted characters on the printing tape; automatic setting means for automatically setting a print size of the characters according to a tape width of a loaded printing tape; and selection setting means for selectively setting the print size of the characters from among a plurality of print sizes determined in stages, wherein the selection setting means comprises fixed-size setting means capable of selectively setting a specific print size corresponding to an article for adhesion selected from among a plurality of concrete articles for adhesion.
According to the above arrangement, there are provided the automatic setting means for setting the print size of the characters according to the tape width of the loaded printing tape, and the selection setting means for selectively setting the print size of the characters from among a plurality of print sizes determined in stages. Therefore, a user can set the print size of the characters easily by using the automatic setting means or the selection setting means appropriately according to his/her purpose and preference. Furthermore, since the selection setting means includes the fixed-size setting means capable of selectively setting a specific print size corresponding to the selected article for adhesion, which is selected from among a plurality of concrete articles for adhesion, it is possible to set the print size suitable for the label of the concrete article for adhesion without being influenced by the width of the tape of the loaded printing tape. Specifically, it is possible to set the specific print size corresponding to the concrete article for adhesion easily and rapidly without being influenced by the width of the loaded printing tape by just selecting the concrete article for adhesion to which the created label is to be adhered, thus enabling enhancement of the convenience and the user-friendliness for the user. Furthermore, since the specific print size corresponding to the concrete article for adhesion can be set whatever tape width of the printing tape may be used, there can be created a label which corresponds to the concrete article for adhesion irrespective of the width of the loaded printing tape. Accordingly, even in case where the user creates the label for the concrete article for adhesion with a narrow width, he/she can create the label by using the printing tape with a wide width, which is easy to handle. When the created label is adhered, the tape having a large width is adhered in the folded manner to suit the concrete article for adhesion, thus making the adhered label difficult to be peeled off.
Preferably, the plurality of articles for adhesion includes media, cases for containing therein these media, and a pencil, the concrete media including those classified into a magnetic disk, an optical magnetic disk, an optical disk, and a memory card. The convenience and the user-friendliness for the user can thus be enhanced. Specifically, in creating the labels for the concrete media such as a magnetic disk, an optical magnetic disk, an optical disk and a memory card, and cases holding these media, as well as a pencil, the user can set the appropriate print size of the labels easily and rapidly without considering the tape width of the loaded tape width. As the concrete media having the necessity of frequently preparing labels therefor, there can be listed a flexible disk classified as the magnetic disk, a magnet optical disk and a mini disk classified as the optical magnetic disk, a compact disk (CD) classified as the optical disk, and the memory stick and the SmartMedia classified as the memory card. The above arrangement makes it easy to prepare labels for such media.
Preferably, the display means switches an input screen to an exclusive input screen corresponding to the concrete article for adhesion by mode switching to the fixed-size setting means.
According to this arrangement, when the concrete article for adhesion is selected by the fixed-size setting means and then the mode switching to the fixed-size setting means is made, the input screen can be switched to the exclusive input screen corresponding to the selected specific article for adhesion. Accordingly, the user can create the label while confirming the selected article for adhesion when the label for the specific article for adhesion is created. A mistake in label creation can thus be prevented.
Preferably, the specific print size corresponds to an end face of the concrete article for adhesion, and the print means is capable of printing a guide line corresponding to a width of the end face of the article for adhesion as well as the characters of the specific print size.
According to this arrangement, when the created label is adhered to the end face of the concrete article for adhesion, the guide line is used as the guide of the adhered position thereof. It is thus possible to adhere the label in an appropriate position without being tilted.
Preferably, the print means print the pictographic characters indicating the concrete article for adhesion as well as the characters of the specific print size.
According to this constitution, since the pictographic characters corresponding to the selected concrete article for adhesion are printed on the label together with the characters of the specific print size corresponding to the selected concrete article for adhesion, it is possible to easily create a highly expressive label according to the preferences of the user. Furthermore, when various types of the labels are created in succession, it is possible to judge which label should be adhered to which medium based on the printed content, thus preventing mistaken use of the label.
Preferably, the fixed-size setting means comprises a character number limiting means for limiting a number of the inputted characters depending on an available length of an adhesion area of the concrete article for adhesion.
According to this arrangement, since the number of the inputted characters is limited depending on the length of the available label adhesion area of the selected concrete article for adhesion, a mistake in label creation can be prevented when the label for the concrete article for adhesion is created. Accordingly, there can be prevented a mistake in that the label for the concrete article for adhesion is longer than the available label adhesion area of the target specific article for adhesion due to a large number of inputted characters.
Preferably, the character number limiting means notifies an error in the display means when the number of the letters of the inputted character exceeds the limitation.
According to this arrangement, the error notification is performed by the display means when the number of the inputted character exceeds the limitation with respect to the length of the available label adhesion area of the selected concrete article for adhesion. Therefore, in the creation of the label for adhering to the concrete article for adhesion, when the number of the inputted characters is large with respect to the available label adhesion area of the concrete article for adhesion, it is possible to urge the user to restrict or limit the number of the characters to an appropriate number. In this manner, by causing the user to become aware that the number of the characters is larger than acceptable, there can be prevented a mistake in the label creation, i.e., a mistake in that the created label is too long as compared with the specific article for adhesion.